Bloom credits the Cursus Honorum with being excellent for the state, allowing Rome to acquire excellent magistrates through the fierce competition with Rome’s noble stock. Which is what Bloom says Horace had a problem with, Horace was not of noble birth. Through most of his upbringing, because he could afford it, he spent much of his time with the elite and noble-born, or, 'hobnobbing' with them, as Bloom put it. Despite his money, Horace could not participate in the Cursus Honorum, so instead, he ended up being a poet.

Bloom blames his poetry for making those who once strove to reach the highest for themselves and for Rome through the Cursus Honorum feel guilty about their desires and ambition. Horace talks about "the race for wealth and position, the folly of extremes, the desirability of mutual forbearance, and the evils of ambition"; he wrote against everything that the Cursus Honorum stood for.